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Thanksgiving Happenings

This year, Feed the Need Missions is partnering with individuals, churches and local businesses to help provide 600 Thanksgiving meals to families in our communities. Each boxed meals will include a frozen turkey and sides that families can prepare at home on Thanksgiving Day, and we need your help to make it a success!

If you would like to donate, please drop off the following non-perishable food items to any of our drop off locations listed here. Be sure to note the food donations are for “Feed the Need Thanksgiving Meals.”

  • Instant Mashed Potatoes
  • Canned Green Beans
  • Canned Corn
  • Instant Stuffing
  • Packets of Gravy
  • Canned Cranberry Sauce
  • Canned Sweet Potatoes
  • Nonperishable Dessert Kits (ex. cake mix with icing, brownies, cookie mix)

We also need financial donations for frozen turkeys as we will be purchasing these in bulk. Simply donate here and write “frozen turkey” in the comments section of the donation form.

Download printable pdf flyer

Donation Drop-off Locations:

  • Living Room Bookstore
  • Bastrop YMCA
  • Bastrop Christian Church
  • Bastrop Church of Christ
  • Bastrop First
  • Bastrop Christian Outreach Center
  • Good Sheperd Lutheran Church, Bastrop
  • Celebration
  • First Baptist Church, Giddings
  • Primera Baptist Church

Thanksgiving Boxed Dinner Giveaway Dates

If you or a family is in need of a Thanksgiving Dinner Giveaway Box, please register at any of our Feed the Need locations. It is important that you register so we know how many meals are needed. Deadline for registration is November 6th. 

BASTROP:

Saturday, November 18, 2017 from 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Primera Baptist Church
301 Paul C Bell St. Bastrop, Texas 78602

SMITHVILLE:

Sunday, November 19, 2017 from 5:00-6:00 PM

Hearts Chapel
206 Prima St. Smithville, Texas 78957

GIDDINGS:

Sunday, November 19, 2017 from 5:00-6:00 PM

Giddings Food Pantry
190 N Harris Giddings, Texas 78942

STONY POINT:

Monday, November 20 from 5:30-6:30 PM

Stony Point Park
121 Stony Creek Dr. Del Valle, Texas 78617

 

 

If you are interested in volunteering at one of these locations for the giveaway please email Christy Beyer at christy.beyer@feedtheneed.org.

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A Mission U-Too Thanksgiving

The holidays are here and we are thankful for you! What a great time of year to come and serve the community of Smithville.

Mission U-Too’s Smithville site has been serving on Thanksgiving Day for the past four years. Because the site’s “normal” serving day is Thursday, we are blessed to continue to serve on Thanksgiving day. But instead of the normal burgers you might find, our volunteers serve a full on Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings.

A Mission U-Too Thanksgiving Story

Our second year of serving the Smithville community and building relationships as a community, a gentleman by the name of Mike who has lived in Smithville almost all of his life, asked us if we were serving on Thanksgiving. Mike had been coming every week, but his question stood out to us. Mike didn’t have much and he had no family close by to celebrate the holidays with. We realized many others might be in the same situation as him so we decided that regardless of the weather or holiday we will still serve on that day.

We showed up Thanksgiving Day and we started setting up for our meal. Little did we know that the community of Smithville and Bastrop came together and surprised us with a full Thanksgiving feast. We still cooked some burgers and hot dogs.

When our friend Mike, arrived to the site he was excited to see a feast waiting before him. “I have never seen the Smithville community come together. I can’t believe this. I had no money for food this week, now I will have plenty.” What a blessing it was to come together as a community without asking for anything and Jesus provided the entire meal. Mike went home with some leftovers to feed him at least through the weekend.

How You Can Help

Bring your family and come serve with us from 5:00-6:00 pm on Thanksgiving day at The Neighborhood Place on MLK and 95 in Smithville, TX. Share your love and the gospel with our friends from Smithville. Also if you know a family in need of a hot Thanksgiving meal, please let them know where they can come. We would love to have an abundance to share the holidays with.

If you would like to help with food, please contact Brittanie at 512-575-5289 for needed items.

We THANK YOU for your generosity, prayer, and servant hearts during the holidays.

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“Now I know why I came”

“I shouldn’t have come,” Nancy said. “Why?” I asked. “Because I’m embarrassed others need it more than me, I should go.” I walked around the picnic table to sit down with her and asked her to please stay. She looked at me in the eyes and said, “Thank you for having me.”

Nancy is a 55 year-old single woman who resides in Smithville, TX. She lives in an efficiency apartment and is on housing assistance. Nancy heard about Mission U-Too from her neighbors who attend regularly, but it took her 4 months to join us. She recently started coming because her grandson is staying with her for the summer, and they were both hungry. For physical food and spiritual food.

“I have a fixed income and can barely feed myself. I now have my grandson with me who needs to eat more than I do.” Nancy and her grandson took home three burgers and three hotdogs each and some extra food for the week since she wasn’t sure when their next meal would be other than the free lunch for the children of the community.

When asked how we can pray for her she broke down in tears and started crying. “Now I know why I came. I have been needing prayer but have no one to turn to.” Divorced and living by herself, Nancy dwells on the past. She has never been able to talk about her divorce because of shame and people judging her. She said, “I’m tired of hypocrites and getting hurt. I need more positive people in my life.”

Now knowing that Mission U-Too is at the Smithville location every Thursday rain or shine, Nancy found a new place where she can come and be herself and feel loved and accepted just the way she is. Building relationships and tearing walls down one by one, we now have a new friendship. Confused, Nancy asked why we were doing this. “Because Jesus told us to. We’re to love you and care for you just like Jesus loves us and cares for us,” I said. She smiled.

Nancy’s story through Mission U-Too is not finished yet!

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Meet a Volunteer: Doug

Doug Byrom has been a resident of Smithville, Texas for 15 years. He’s been serving with Mission U-Too for almost a year and because of his busy work schedule working in the oil industry he wasn’t able to serve outside of his church. He said “I would show up Sunday’s and do my thing, but I was wanting more.”

He heard about Mission U-Too from Larry White, the site coordinator at the Bastrop South site. Larry was grocery shopping for the weekly meal at Mission U-Too and Doug was behind Larry in the check out line. He asked Larry why he had so many burgers and buns and asked when the cookout was. It was a great opportunity for Larry to share with Doug the meaning behind the “cookout.” Doug mentioned that Mission U-Too has been the outlet he’s been looking for. He’s been wanting to get out into his community of 15 years, as he knew so little about the people of his community. He said “I used to be one of those who stayed inside the church building, and now I’m not.”

It’s people like Doug who catch the mission and vision of Mission U-Too and have a desire and a heart to impact his community. He’s interested in starting new sites and shares with his church about Mission U-Too to help unite the body.

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Bastrop County Clean Up

We need your help.

It has been a long tough few weeks in Bastrop County with the recent fires in Smithville and now flooding throughout Bastrop County for the second time this year. As a result there are many people displaced and in need of a helping hand to get back on their feet.

Mission U-Too has been out supporting our community by cooking nonstop since the fires broke out last month. But right now this community desperately needs volunteers that are willing to show up and let God use them in the first stage of clean up from these fires and floods.

Samaritan’s Purse is helping coordinate these efforts for our community, and now more than ever your help is needed to bring aid to many people lost and hurting.

Click the button below for more details and to sign up to help.

SIGN UP
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Fire & Flooding Relief Efforts

It’s been a tough month for the Central Texas area with the Hidden Pines fires near Smithville and the most recent flooding in the Austin area. Bastrop County has been hit three times this year alone with natural disasters that have left many people displaced and left to sort through the damage.

Now that the fires and floods have subsided the hard part begins. The cleanup. Several organizations are on the ground coordinating the actual cleanup, and Mission U-Too has been asked to serve food to the volunteers and families who lost their homes. Also as the news media covers the fires and flooding less and less, volunteers on the ground decreases, but the need stays the same.

 

Mission U-Too is committed to providing disaster relief efforts, first in our own communities and then to communities where we are called to go serve. Right now we are coordinating efforts in Smithville throughout the fire cleanup, Bastrop throughout the flood cleanup, and now in Onion Creek in southeast Austin to help with flooding relief efforts. And we need your help.

The most critical need is for donations. So far we have served over 7,000 meals and over the next few weeks we will serve many more. But in order to continue, we need your financial support to make sure we have enough food for anyone who comes for a meal. Donate today.

We also need volunteers to help us over the next few days in Onion Creek. We served there a couple years ago when this area was devastated by floods, and we were asked by the fire chief to come back and serve as this community struggles with round two of flooding. We will be out there all day Wednesday and Thursday this week and need volunteers to help cook, serve, and lend a listening ear.

If you are able to come out this week, please fill out this volunteer registration form so we can best coordinate these efforts.

Thank you for continuing to lift those affected by the fires and floods in your prayers. Cleanup is a long road and can be very difficult physically and emotionally for all of those involved. Thank you also for praying for Mission U-Too as we are sent out to these locations.

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Update: Bastrop County Fires

Since Thursday, Mission U-Too has served over 700 meals each day to victims, evacuees, volunteers, and first responders from the Hidden Pines Fire in Bastrop County.

Every day we have served breakfast, lunch, and dinner to anyone who needs a meal. We’ve also sent volunteers to deliver food to local hotels where evacuees and victims have been staying.

There are many hurting and anxious people who are unsure what to expect, not knowing if they lost their home or wondering if anything is salvageable from the fire damage. It is a confusing and difficult time, and our team has been there to lend a listening ear to anyone who needs it.

We plan to continue serving at the Smithville Rec Center through Wednesday, with the possibility of continuing to serve even more in the days following as well.

Right now donations are critical. When we first set up to serve we had much of the food donated from various local sources, but now Mission U-Too is completely covering all the food costs. And we don’t want to run out of food.

To give, simply make your donation today. Your financial support is greatly needed and appreciated.

We also need more volunteers to serve. If you are able to volunteer, please fill out the volunteer form below and let us know what times you are available. That way we will be able to better schedule and serve our community well in the following days.

And, of course, continue to pray for the victims and evacuees as they struggle to make sense of everything, for the volunteers as they serve the community, and for protection and wisdom for the first responders as they fight this fire.

Thank you so much for the outpouring of support you have already shown, we really couldn’t be doing what we are doing without you.

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Bastrop County Fires: We Need Your Help

Update: It’s been a few days since we have been serving, and we could still use your help.

As the governor declares Bastrop County in a state of disaster, the Mission U-Too team is setting up to serve in one of their very own communities. This is our home and these are our neighbors, and we can’t think of any place we’d rather be serving right now, especially because this isn’t the first time we have done this right here in Bastrop County.

Right now we are setting up at the northeast corner of the Smithville Recreation Center serving food to first responders. Our plan is to be out here as long as we are needed, serving food and lending a listening ear to anyone who needs it. But in order to serve well, we need your help!

Here are some ways you can help serve first responders, evacuees, and victims of the 2015 Bastrop County fire.

Donations – We need your financial support to cover costs of food and other expenses for our team while we serve. Since we plan to be here into next week we definitely could use your support. Make a donation today.

Volunteer – Not only do we need your financial support, we need people to help serve. We are looking for people to help cook food and volunteers to deliver the food to those who need it, especially those with larger vehicles like SUVs or vans. Either just show up at the Smithville Recreation Center located at 106 Royston St, Smithville, TX 78957 or contact Jason Bray at 214.236.4446 or Jonah Beyer at 512.988.8365 if you have any questions about volunteering.

Prayer – Pray, pray, pray…we need you to pray for the firefighters and other first responders for their safety as they battle the fire, that there is minimum damage to homes and businesses, as well as for the families either evacuated or victims of the fire. Also pray for Mission U-Too and the leadership that God would use us to share His love.

Thank you for sharing and for your support through donations, volunteering, and prayer, we appreciate all of you who support what God is doing through Mission U-Too!

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Dwight’s Story

At Mission U-Too our mission is simply to feed people both physically and spiritually. Christ called us to meet our neighbor’s physical needs by providing a meal for them each week. Even more, He called us to share the message of Christ.

The burger is just the method, but the real change happens when people experience the love of Christ.

Dwight

Meet Dwight

“My name is Dwight. I was born and raised in Bastrop County. Both of my parents are deceased and I am under the caregiver of my Aunt. I have a learning disorder, but find comfort in Jesus Christ. When I started to come to Mission U-Too I was shy and only spoke to those I knew. I started to come every Monday to the Bastrop location and found purpose in my life. I love to make friendships and laugh. I’ve never met a stranger in my life and now I serve at the Smithville location every Thursday night. I feel loved by those I serve, and those who I serve with. In fact, everyone is “my buddy.” I like to pray during prayer time after serving in Smithville, and will one day like to lead one of the bible study messages.”

feedtheneed-final2014-tiltWith your help, Mission U-Too will continue to feed the need and provide a safe place where people can receive a hot meal each week and be accepted as they are. Even further, your gift of $25, $50, or $100 will impact more lives with the gospel.

Thank you for giving today, and making a difference in the lives of people like Dwight!

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Mission U-Too Smithville

A new day has come and gone, and tomorrow is quickly approaching. Sooner than you know it, it will be Thursday. Thursday for Mission U-Too means serving in Smithville and/or Lockhart. But we have some changes that are taking place in Smithville that I want you to be a part of!

Mission U-TooI have some exciting news! God is moving and making changes in Smithville’s location. Mission U-Too Smithville will be serving at The Neighborhood Place from 5:00-6:00 every Thursday!

When change happens goodness comes out of it. Smithville is growing in the people we serve and how many volunteers are serving. When we are constantly in prayer, it’s in God’s will and perfect timing, He will show up and show out! It’s been an adventure watching Mission U-Too Smithville volunteers reach so many lives.

Mission U-Too SmithvilleWe are excited about our new location, our volunteers, the Smithville community, and those we serve. Come be a part of it and watch God do miracles, healing, change lives, restore hearts and salvation take place. BAM! Now that’s the gospel!

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